Follow by Email

Friday, 25 January 2013

Cassez fiasco casts shadow on Gaddafi case

Peña Nieto, the president of Mexico, has called on that
country’s authorities not to repeat similar fiascos such as the Florence Cassez
case. Ms. Cassez, a French national, was released from prison on January 23
after a 3-2 decision by the supreme court, which determined that extreme
irregularities had made it impossible for her to receive a fair trial.

Cassez, exhausted and disheveled, on the morning of her "arrest"

“I reaffirm my absolute respect in the decisions,” said Peña
Nieto. “I lament that in this case, or in any other case, errors or violations
of due process prevent the judiciary from determining the innocence or guilt of
a person.”

The only other high profile international case facing Mexico’s
Attorney General’s office (PGR) relates to an alleged plot to smuggle Saadi
Gaddafi, third son to former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, from Libya to
Mexico in 2011. In that case a Danish national, Pierre Flensborg, a Canadian,
Cynthia (Cyndy) Vanier, and an American, Gabriela (Gabby) de Cueto, are being
held.

In the Gaddafi case, final arguments are being made, with a
decision expected within two months.

The defendants in the Gaddafi case have made similar
complaints as Cassez with regard to slow consular access and poor treatment.

The failings of the Mexican authorities, however, are not as
egregious here as in the Cassez case. As well, whereas the French government
and people rallied behind Cassez, the Canadian, Danish, and American
governments have kept a low profile, resulting in less pressure on Peña Nieto’s
new administration.

There is less attention within Mexico, too. The alleged
Gaddafi plotters harmed no Mexicans, with the case being much less sensitive than
Cassez’s, which dealt with kidnapping, an ongoing scourge in Mexico, and
involved real victims on Mexican soil. Consequently, the judge in the Gaddafi
case has more political leeway. And, though Peña Nieto may have just tipped his
hat in favour of a release, it might also be that a conviction in the Gaddafi
case would re-assert a “get-tough” image, ameliorating some of the negative domestic political fallout from the Cassez release.

In Mexico, sentences are quite long. Cassez, for example, had
served seven years of a 60 year sentence for kidnapping, and Vanier et al are looking at six to 18 years for
“attempt to human smuggle”.

In his comments Peña Nieto asked the police and judicial authorities
to strictly adhere to the law, with the specific intention of avoiding embarrassments
like the affaire Cassez, in which the
accused was detained, kept overnight, and grandstanded the next day in a fake
arrest staged for the media. Innocent or guilty – and there are many Mexicans
who feel betrayed by her release – the case revealed an almost comical
disregard for due process and the rule of law.

In related news, the Mexican government has announced that
it is adopting a lower profile with regard to arrests. In the Calderon
administration, accused criminals were paraded before the media in shackles. They
were often referred to by their gang names, with alleged cartel links
mentioned. No more. Now, Peña Nieto's communications team has said that it will
be enforcing a previously-ignored article of the Federal Radio and Television
Law prohibiting "apology for violence or crime."

This policy will extend even to the government’s list of its
37 most-wanted, who will no longer be known by aliases or affiliations with
organized crime.

Podcast: Notes From The Underground

In the podcast Notes From The Underground TE Wilson discusses historical and contemporary attitudes toward crime. Each episode features a one-on-one interview that explores a unique topic. Interviewees include authors, experts, and individuals with personal experiences of crime. These podcasts were originally broadcast through the facilities of Trent Radio in Peterborough, Canada.

Mezcalero, a Detective Sánchez novel

Bicultural and transgender, detective Ernesto Sánchez seeks a missing Canadian woman on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Moving uneasily in a world where benign tourism co-exists with extreme violence, he becomes a pawn in a shadowy power-play between corrupt police and drug cartels. Forced to make hard choices – desperate, wounded, and friendless – Sánchez takes refuge in the lawless mountains of Oaxaca. And discovers his fate.

“Wilson’s Mezcalero is a real-pager turner…While the milieu of Wilson’s novel is reminiscent of the hard-boiled tradition, his creation of P.I. Ernesto Sánchez is original, and helps Wilson push the boundaries with respect to genre. Sánchez is a hard-hitting private eye, but Wilson also depicts him as struggling with many of the issues that transgender individuals typically face; in this manner, Wilson creates both a riveting mystery and timely story about navigating life as a gender nonconforming individual.”

“Mezcalero is a remarkable read, with sustained suspense, surprise explosions of poetry and violence, and some new answers to old questions...Wilson understands something about violence and gender that I have never encountered before: that women’s violence is perhaps the most feared. Sanchez’s womanly violence in his manly body is a mystery revealed, a truth told that we suspected all along. This is a profoundly feminist book. The women in the book are the power brokers, the activators of action; even the most oppressed empleada is a container of her own complete power. Mezcalero is deftly plotted, and deploys an acrobatic narrative that is, frankly, exhilarating. Sanchez has a lot to teach us. Wilson, too.”

Janette Platana, author of A Token of My Affliction (2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize; 2016 English Language Trilium Book Award finalist).

“T.E. Wilson’s Mezcalerois, as a novel, a tacit consequence of the author’s real-world work as a reporter/journalist in Mexico. His work is rich in essence, and rich in detail, of how widespread organized crime and corruption permeate Mexican society. Highly recommended. This is great, well-grounded fiction.”

Dr. Edgardo Buscaglia, Senior Research Scholar in Law and Economics, Columbia University, and President of the Citizens’ Action Institute (Instituto de Acción Ciudadana).

“T.E. Wilson has crafted a terrific, terrifying and yet sensationally witty portrait of modern Mexico. Detective Sánchez is irresistible. You won’t soon forget his journey through that unpredictable jungle that is Mexico today.”